Smith & Wesson's New M&P 2.0 Competitor Pistol

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The S&W Performance Center has a pistol that will knock your socks off. I traveled down to Florida back in the winter to see it when it was new, and it was, and is, da bomb. The M&P 2.0 Competitor is a metal-framed 9mm M&P with a five-inch barrel, a sweet trigger, and 17-round magazines. It is of course given front and rear cocking serrations, and an optics plate on top, because them’s the things these days, and good ones at that.

The Nuts and Bolts

Now, a five-inch barrel calls for some slide mods, because the M&P doesn’t usually come with a slide that long. So, S&W stretched the slide to match the barrel, but then also cut side slots in it at the muzzle, (and along the top) to keep the weight down and the slide as a result has much the same speed and inertia as a standard slide does. That’s good for reliability, and the longer slide has the front sight mounted at the end, for a longer sight radius. All that is nice, but the frame is where the real magic happens. S&W machines the frame out of aluminum, and in so doing they take extra liberties in sculpting it to fit your hand and make it comfortable to shoot.

The front strap is raised, for a higher grip. The sides of the frame, in line with the trigger, are sculpted down so your finger has less of a chance to rub on the frame. This is especially important to those with smaller hands. Smaller-hand shooters can, of course, swap the backstrap for a different one, because the Competitor uses the same M&P backstraps as the rest of the line. Use the ones provided, buy more, modify them your heart’s content, knock yourself out because you get to make it yours. Out front, the frame has, of course, a rail for light or laser. And in-between there is the trigger. Oh, the trigger.

The problem with a lot of polymer-framed pistols is that the frame squishes. This means that as you press the trigger back, the pin it pivots on allows movement because the frame is flexing, and that movement has to be allowed for in the trigger travel and striker release engagement surfaces. The M&P uses an internal chassis that the entire firing system rides in, so no squish. And now that it is in a metal frame, even the chassis itself can’t “float” in the polymer shell. So the trigger is clean, crisp and easy to use. What we’d expect from the Performance Center, or course, but still, very nice.

The metal frame is machined to be as ergonomic as possible, with clearances for your trigger finger, regardless of which hand you are using. In addition to the backstrap, there’s a textured panel on the frontstrap that adds to the non-slip grip design. There is an accessory rail out on the dustcover, so if you need a light or laser, you’ve got a place to park it. The takedown lever, directly above the trigger is set into its own recess, so it won’t be inadvertently moved, and the slide stop lever has a small protective fence around it. The slide stop lever is ambi, present on both sides. The magazine release button is reversible, for left-handed use. The tang of the Competitor is as high as S&W can make it and still provide solid support to the chassis retaining pin, so you can really choke up on the frame.

Down at the bottom of the frame, the mag well opening is plenty generous, but that wasn’t enough for the Performance Center. So, they installed a mag well funnel, plenty big but not one of the baker’s-funnel-sized ones you’ll sometimes see on the range. The Competitor mag funnel is large enough to be eminently useful, but not so large as to be a problem in concealed carry, with the right clothing choices.

Note the slide length. The slide and barrel are lengthened for a couple of reasons. Well, three, really. One, it changes the balance slightly, giving the Competitor a slightly nose-out balance. For those using iron sights, it permits a longer sight radius, which improves useful accuracy, and the longer barrel makes for softer felt recoil. Oh, not due entirely to the extra weight, but the need for a power factor. The power factor you have to deliver is measured by the bullets velocity and weight, but the recoil you feel adds to that the weight of the powder, jetting out of the muzzle. At something on the order of 5,000 fps, powder weight adds up. A longer barrel lets you get the same measured PF with less powder. Every tenth of a grain-weight in powder you don’t need is a 0.5 PF decrease in felt recoil. At the top, every detail matters, and the top shooters tune their load to their pistols.

Competitors don’t want sluggish cycling of their pistols, so that’s why the Performance Center went and carved on the Competitor. The three slots at an angle on the slide nose and the long slots on either side of the centerline on tap are all there to bring the mass of the Competitor slide down to where it would be on a regular M&P, and keep the slide velocity up. This also ensures it has the same feeding dynamics and timing as the regular M&P, which has proven to be ultra-reliable.

On top of the slide, S&W has machined an optics mounting platform, and bolted on a filler plate in case you don’t need or want optics. Installation is simple and obvious: unbolt the plate, select the appropriate adapter plate, match up slide, plate and optic, and bolt things on. Oh, don’t forget the Loctite. As far as weight is concerned, you might think that going back to a metal frame would make the Competitor a pig. Au contraire. At a listed weight of 29 ounces (sans optics) the Competitor is a third of an inch shorter than a G34, and three ounces heavier. And with that superior trigger, I just have to add.

Range Report

At the range event in Florida, the organizers gave us the expected range time where we got to flog the test firearms as much as we could. (Sometimes being a gun writer is a hard life, I’ll admit.) Then came the competition. We gun writers took turns shooting through the short course under the watchful eye of Jerry Miculek, who offered advice, and who had been helping us with running the guns during the afternoon session. Once we had run the course, Jerry turned to me, “Patrick, I noticed you took your time on that first plate.” I hadn’t taken more than a fraction more than my usual, but Jerry noticed. “Jerry, I wanted to check that the dot was dead-on, so I made sure I buried the dot dead-center on the plate. It is.” “I thought so. Good, I’ll use yours then to run the stage.” Which he promptly did, and thrashed our times so badly it would have been embarrassing, were Jerry not just the nicest guy on the planet.

When I got home, I asked for not just any sample gun, but I asked specifically for the sample gun I had used in the range time, just because I could. They tracked it down to wherever it had gotten to, and sent it. Each Competitor comes in a large lockable storage case, with four 17-round magazines. The baseplates are extended so as to reach past the magazine well funnel, but they are not extended-capacity magazine extensions. For greater capacity you’ll have to go to Taylor Freelance, where a “140mm” extension will net you +6 rounds of 9mm. That’s kosher in USPSA Limited Division. If you just want the maximum, then you get a “170mm” extension, and that TF extension nets you +10 rounds of 9mm ammo. 27+1 capacity? Oh yes.

The Competitor when we shot them down in Florida had Trijicon RMR red dots mounted on them. All my RMRs are currently tied up in other projects, so I grabbed a Shield RMSx off the shelf and mounted it on the Competitor. There were no malfunctions, of course, and accuracy was the expected superb.

It is called the Competitor, but this would make a great EDC pistol. If you need to make it a tad less bulky, you can take off the mag funnel and swap the baseplates for standard ones. You’ll still have 17+1 rounds on the pistol, but less bulk to conceal. Then pack another magazine (or two) with the TF 140mm extensions, and you’ll have 23 rounds in each of those as back up.

In USPSA competition, as a Limited Division, or a Carry Optic, you would be well-equipped with the Competitor. You would not be giving up anything in the trigger department to anyone else and you’d have a marked advantage over a lot of other competitors. Magazines are easy to source, they are sturdy, reliable and you already start with four of them. And, as a pistol for bowling pin shooting, this is a cool one. With so many of the pin events going over to minor pin sets, the Competitor would be a useful tool in two of the main events and one of the optionals. One pistol for three events, swapping a red-dot optic in and out is just being efficient.

And the best part? You get all this for a list price of $999. A tuned carry gun you can compete with, with a nice trigger and it comes with four hi-cap magazines? Beat that deal, I dare you.

S&W M&P 2.0 PERFORMANCE CENTER COMPETITOR PISTOL SPECS

• Type: Striker-fired semi-automatic
• Caliber: 9mm
• Capacity: 17+1 rounds
• Barrel: 5 in.
• Overall Length: 8.25 in.
• Weight: 29 oz.
• Finish: Melonited steel, anodized aluminum
• Grips: n/a
• Sights: Fixed rear, fiber optic front
• Trigger: 4 lbs. 4 oz.
• MSRP: $999
• Contact: Smith-Wesson.com, (800) 331-0852

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